Psalm 23 Musings - THE PATH

“He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.”

“But what should I do?”

This question - in various forms - comes up often in conversations with others, “which choice do I make?” “What is God’s will"?” “How do I know what I’m supposed to do?”. To be clear, I have been on both sides of the conversation.

For those desiring to live a life in step with The Lord and His Word, these are natural questions - how do we know what the right path is? I don’t have a magic answer or a fool proof plan, but I think David’s expression in Psalm 23 can bring some peace, clarity, and confidence as we walk out the path of Life.

Once again, David is celebrating the fact that Jehovah is his Shepherd, perhaps expressing “this is the kind of Shepherd that I have, He leads me”. Now this may seem obvious that a Shepherd leads sheep, but David makes it a point - maybe to remind himself (and us?) that in this scenario we are sheep. Sheep that are not led are lost. Sheep are completely dependent on a shepherd, and the kind of Shepherd that He is matters. A lot. This Shepherd, David tells us, will not lead us astray. We can rest assured, this is a Good Shepherd, one that does His job. He is dependable to lead us on righteous paths. “Righteous” being a word that describes the character and nature of God - He is always right, He is always just. 

But whenever “right” comes up, we may automatically juxtapose it to “wrong”. Contrast is important, and clearly if we want to get on the right path, we might want to avoid the wrong one. But in our human effort to avoid wrong we can often get occupied with the doing, the knowing, the choosing - this often causes disruption and even fear. Not to say right isn’t important. I mean, isn’t that the whole point? But If our focus is on what is right and what is wrong, we might miss David’s point. He is at ease, celebrating confidence that the key is in WHO THE SHEPHERD is. “I am led, my Shepherd always gets it right ”. A preoccupation with His will or which way to go will ultimately lead to a preoccupation with self. We can begin to shepherd ourselves into “staying on the right path”. This easily leads to measuring performance, gauging correctness, or getting stuck in religious cycles.

The promise here is that “right ways” are a result of being led.

I tend to think their is relief in David’s statement, and David would certainly know why this is a relief. He was used to leading his own sheep up and down paths in the Judaean hills - what he calls “magal” - the winding tracks going over rocky countryside, all interconnected with no direct routes. With no clear destination found on any path, one would have to know the landscape well to navigate well. Sheep don’t have a clue where the path leads, they just follow their shepherd. To lead well, a shepherd would need intimate knowledge of the terrain. David finds relief in knowing that he doesn’t have to navigate his own life’s path with the same effort he does for his sheep. When it comes to David & Jehovah, he’s thrilled to be on the sheep’s side of things.

We too were designed for this kind of dependence.

Think about how little a sheep considers where it is headed. It just follows, confident the Shepherd will lead to the green grassy places and clean water. This actually may not be appealing to most of us. Being content with being led is not necessarily natural. For most of us it feels weak and out of control. Our own questions betray us “What am I supposed to do?”. We want to know and get it right. We are usually fixated more on getting right than we are on following, finding our safety in “rightness”. But we were designed to find our safety in dependence, our “rightness” wrapped up in Our Shepherd.

If we carry this idea into the New Testament it becomes even more clear - Righteousness (being right with God - right within), is a free gift (Romans 5:17) provided through the finished work of Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:21). If we take a hint from the NT, it means “being right” is dependent on one thing - being IN CHRIST. Living out of the new Life we are given will result in reflecting Him and expressing His character. Depending on that new life within will effect how we will walk, live, and choose. His character expressed will always be “right”.  

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Ultimately to follow the lead of the Shepherd and trust His path means surrender. While surrender is a laying down of control - it is not resignation. It is not “it is what it is”.  It is not passive. It is not giving up, but a giving in to trust. True surrender is always to something, to someone. In God’s economy surrender is a surrender to love. To a person. To Him. He is Love. It is an act of trust and confidence that the one you are leaning on is safe, trustworthy, and responsible.

We cannot truly surrender apart from believing & trusting in God’s love and goodness.

Until we KNOW this, we will seek right paths out of striving or resignation. I love how Benner says it: “Christian obedience should always be based on surrender to a person, not simply acceptance of an obligation. It is surrender to love, not submission to a duty.” Like David, we must be utterly convinced of the true nature and character of God in order to truly surrender to Him in walking the paths of life. To follow a Shepherd is perhaps to have no idea where you are going, to only see the path immediately in front of you - but to be at peace. This peace comes from being fully convinced that the outcome of the path will be life, goodness, and joy. But to be convinced of this, is to also have this life, goodness, and joy in the present as we go along the path. Because to follow the Shepherd is to be in His presence, and it is in His presence that we ultimately know all that we were meant for.

David sums up this thought with "For His name’s sake”. It seems pretty clear that God operates this way for His own glory. But there might be a little more to David’s sentiment here. “Sake” can also mean “intent”, while in Hebrew culture someone’s “name” is usually associated with one’s reputation or character. I am not a Hebrew scholar, but when I read this phrase and study the words I can’t help but wonder if David is ultimately pointing us back to how much this all rests on the Shepherd’s shoulders - Everything He does is motivated by His character and nature, so we can relax. We can depend. When we know who He is, full of goodness and mercy (name), we can completely trust the intent (sake) of the paths He takes us on. His goodness and love are not dependent upon us on getting it right. It is who He is. He is love, and love never fails (1 Corinthians 13:8).

We don’t have to understand the path, we just have to know the Shepherd.

”…much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ”. Romans 5:17